Convicted Longmont bank robber, 65, back in jail after brief escape

Boulder Police: Datha Nation lied about identity, said photo in newspaper was 'twin'

By Pierrette J. Shields Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
01/15/2013 02:12:50 PM MST

Updated:
01/15/2013 02:15:51 PM MST

LONGMONT -- A 65-year-old convicted bank robber who escaped from the Boulder County Jail's work release program told a Boulder police officer who arrested her on Friday that she was not the wanted woman and that a photo featured in the newspaper is her twin, police reported.The officer arrested Datha Nation at the RTD terminal on the 1400 block of Walnut Street in Boulder on warrants for escape from a felony conviction and failure to comply with her sentence. He also arrested her on suspicion of attempting to influence a public servant because she provided fake identification information, police reported. She was scheduled for filing of charges in the new case on Tuesday.

Nation

An RTD security sergeant called police about noon Friday and reported that he believed a woman featured in a Times-Call article about the jail escape was in a waiting area at the terminal. The warrants for Nation's arrest were issued Jan. 8 after she failed to return to the Boulder County Jail on Jan. 4 as part of her requirements for her work release on a felony theft conviction.

Nation told the Times-Call last month that she expected to be released from her work release sentence Jan. 7.

Nation did not have a criminal record prior to the arrest on suspicion of robbing a Longmont bank by threatening to infect a teller with AIDS in June 2011 and then making two subsequent attempts to rob the same bank. She qualified for work release and was hoping for the January release had she acquired full-time work and a stable home. As of last month she had neither. She also was ordered to repay $7,700 taken during the robbery.

She told the Times-Call in December that she lost her job in 2009, the robbery was impulsive, and the money helped her live for another year as she looked for new work, which she was unable to secure.

According to Boulder police, an officer who responded to the bus terminal approached Nation and asked if she had identification. She said she did not, but that her name was Linda Glenda Martin, and then offered a birth date and social security number, police reported. She told the officer that her last ID was issued out of Oklahoma. Police ran a check on the name out of Oklahoma, but nothing turned up. She then offered the officer another date of birth, which also failed to turn up a record.

The officer then showed Nation a photo that ran with an article about her escape warrant in the Times-Call and "she said that was a picture of her twin sister, Datha."

Officers arrested Nation on the outstanding warrant and found her identification card on her.

"Other than lying about her identity, nation was polite and cooperative during my contact with her," the officer wrote in the report.

Boulder County Jail Division Chief Bruce Haas said because Nation was on work release, the jail's computer system did not have her checked out of the jail while she was away. So her arrest and booking on Friday did not show up on daily booking reports for the jail. Haas said the computer system would have lost tracking data on Nation had deputies officially checked her out and then checked her back in when she was arrested.

Nation was doing well at the jail before she walked away, according to jail officials.

"The work release supervisor was really surprised, as well, because she seemed to be doing well," Haas said.